This week's prompt at Read Write Poem, prompt
89: it came from the news, invited us to make use of a newspaper headline.
After reading this week's Torah portion to remind myself what its themes
are, I spent some time clicking around various online newspapers. I settled on the headline
How
They Spent Their 'God of Carnage' Vacation. It was a good stretch for me; I don't usually use long (or "found") titles!

I wrote the poem before reading the article (which turns out to be about
the cast of a Broadway play temporarily on hiatus.)
The poem arises out of the very end of this week's Torah portion.
In Deuteronomy 25:17-20, we read:

Remember what Amalek did to you on your journey, after you left Egypt —
how, undeterred by fear of God, he surprised you on the march, when
you were famished and weary, and cut down all the stragglers in your rear.
Therefore, when the Lord your God grants you safety from all your enemies
around you, in the land that the Lord your God is giving you as a hereditary
portion, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget!

What exactly it means to "blot out the memory of Amalek" is, of course,
open for debate. Some have argued that it means to wipe out Amalek and his
descendants, though that's by no means the only interpretation. For more
on this I recommend AMALEK TODAY: To Remember, To Blot Out,
by Rabbi Arthur Waskow (who, by the way, was in a car accident last week
and suffered broken ribs and leg; please keep him in your prayers.)

Reb Arthur notes the paradox in the commandment to "remember... blot out the memory...
do not forget" -- how can we simultaneously blot something out and remember it?
As he touches on some of the dark and painful events which have arisen out
of the commandment to blot out Amalek, he suggests that Amalek is part of
our own family -- indeed, that we can find Amalek within ourselves.
My poem tries to play with some of these same questions. I'll leave it to you to
tell me whether or not I succeeded!

This week's prompt at Read Write Poem, prompt
89: it came from the news, invited us to make use of a newspaper headline.
After reading this week's Torah portion to remind myself what its themes
are, I spent some time clicking around various online newspapers. I settled on the headline
How
They Spent Their 'God of Carnage' Vacation. It was a good stretch for me; I don't usually use long (or "found") titles!

I wrote the poem before reading the article (which turns out to be about
the cast of a Broadway play temporarily on hiatus.)
The poem arises out of the very end of this week's Torah portion.
In Deuteronomy 25:17-20, we read:

Remember what Amalek did to you on your journey, after you left Egypt —
how, undeterred by fear of God, he surprised you on the march, when
you were famished and weary, and cut down all the stragglers in your rear.
Therefore, when the Lord your God grants you safety from all your enemies
around you, in the land that the Lord your God is giving you as a hereditary
portion, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget!

What exactly it means to "blot out the memory of Amalek" is, of course,
open for debate. Some have argued that it means to wipe out Amalek and his
descendants, though that's by no means the only interpretation. For more
on this I recommend AMALEK TODAY: To Remember, To Blot Out,
by Rabbi Arthur Waskow (who, by the way, was in a car accident last week
and suffered broken ribs and leg; please keep him in your prayers.)

Reb Arthur notes the paradox in the commandment to "remember... blot out the memory...
do not forget" -- how can we simultaneously blot something out and remember it?
As he touches on some of the dark and painful events which have arisen out
of the commandment to blot out Amalek, he suggests that Amalek is part of
our own family -- indeed, that we can find Amalek within ourselves.
My poem tries to play with some of these same questions. I'll leave it to you to
tell me whether or not I succeeded!